Understanding the Mental Representations Created by Comparative Advertising

Abstract

Despite theories suggesting that the cognitive impact of comparative advertisements differs from that of noncomparative ads, little progress has been made toward empirically understanding the types of mental representations engendered by these forms of advertising. The current research provides evidence pertinent to this issue across three experiments. As anticipated, comparative ads are more likely to cause mental impressions about the advertised brand relative to competitors than are noncomparative ads. The results also indicate that differentiative comparative ads generate disassociative rather than the associative mental impressions previously thought to characterize the processing of such ads. In addition, the findings demonstrate that both relative and nonrelative impressions may be formed following exposure to comparative ads. Implications are drawn for interpreting the findings of prior investigations, as well as for undertaking future research on comparative advertising.